I was born in 1984, right when people were really freaking out about HIV/AIDS (but still before then-President Ronald Reagan decided it was OK to address it on a national stage). In any case, I was definitely born after the sexual revolution, and brought up during the time of ultimate political correctness.
And HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns were everywhere. Even Nickelodeon.
At the age of 10, I — and many of my peers — probably knew more about the virus than many adults. The basics: you really can’t contract it from kissing or hugging someone. You get it from exchanging sexual fluids with someone who has the virus, possibly by being born from parents with the virus (though medicine has been able to cut that statistic), or sharing IV drugs with someone with it. And anyone can get it, not just white gay dudes. It’s incredibly ignorant for people to think that their sexual orientation would make them completely immune to a freaking VIRUS.
And how do you not get AIDS? Practice safe sex. Or don’t have sex at all. But let’s be realistic here.
Anyway, so today Washington, D.C. released some startling figures. It turns out that the city has the highest contraction rate in the U.S., apparently higher than West Africa (I can’t tell if that’s a racist statement given that both Washington, D.C. and West Africa have a lot of black people, but it’s been blasted all over the media). About 3,000 in every 100,000 D.C. residents have HIV. That’s 3 percent. It doesn’t sound like a lot. But it sooo is.
But here was the statistic that grossed me the hell out: 7 in 10 D.C. residents did not practice safe sex the last time they did the deed with someone. Seventy Percent.
Um, who is still dumb enough not to slap on a condom? Who wants babies and gross diseases, including the ultimate — and incurable, still — illness, HIV? Why wouldn’t you go to the freaking clinic up the block, pick up a bunch of free condoms, so that you’re set for a few weeks? Especially in a city like D.C. where there are at least some readily available resources. But no, instead, we have people contracting the virus out of ignorance, thinking they’re infallible to a still-very-serious (and still mutating) virus . One night of pleasure becomes a lifetime of pricey medicating.
Now don’t get me wrong — I feel sympathy for these people with HIV. I work with people on a daily basis with the virus. I know that mistakes happen. I know that certain circumstances aren’t the same for all people. I’m aware that I’ve been lucky to grow up with parents who talked about these things openly, a school setting that taught inclusive sexual education, and the general knowledge to understand basic science.
But my point is, how have we lived in the United States with this epidemic so rampant, only to have people still spreading the disease as though it’s something treatable or a simple slip-up, like crabs? These numbers are clear indicators that we don’t value life enough in this country as much as we say we do. Pro-lifers, anti-science people can whoop and holler all they want — we’re still not fighting HIV strong enough in this country, and ironically (and sadly) the nation’s capitol has become emblematic of that.
